Questioning Psycho-Therapy – 5

The therapist convinced Lil that the reason she could not form long lasting relationships with men was due to the sexual abuse she suffered a a child, abuse unknown until therapy.

Lil, who previous to entering this office had a very warm relationship with her parents, was told her father had sexually abused her.

The therapist warned her not to tell her parents. Her parents would only deny it. She knew what she knew.

As Lil left the office she contacted her parents, attacked them. When they questioned her, Lil hung up. She refused to speak with them every again. All relatives and friends who ‘took their side’ were cut off.

Lil now became the 38 year old woman who was abused as a child. That was her new identity.

For five years Lil attended therapy to deal with the sexual abuse she never knew she had suffered at the hands of her father.

For five years, Lil, who once had a life, dates, friends, and family, became the 38, then 39, then on and on until she was 43…year old who was abused as a child.

When he therapist went on vacation, Lil, who depended on her therapy, saw another.

This therapist took Lil’s history and listened to her and said; “I really don’t find any proof of abuse, it seems to me you set very high standards and no man has been able to reach them.”

Hearing this, all ‘memories’ of abuse disappeared.

Lil tried to contact her parents. Her father had died, her mother blamed her, and would not speak further. No one from her past would speak to her.

5 Comments

A true story? Or is this an example of what you know to be true? I could believe it to be true – there are far too many people around who make wild claims without a shred of evidence to back them up – and lives can be ruined as a result.

This was a Law Suit. It was a Legal Matter in Open Court. You can do your very own searches on Law Suits against Psycho Therepists, on Law Suits concerning False Memory Syndrome, on Dr. Elizabeth Loftus and her work on memory.

This is not something published on line… this was an actual law suit which was successfully prosecuted.

What I would suggest, to alleivate your own doubts is to enter…successful law suits against psychotherapists+false memory into a search box, and then read through the various cases. I selected this one as it was one of the first and least repulsive.

But definitely repulsive, nonetheless. Is therapy one of those professions that anyone can enter with very little – or no – proper training? One gets the impression that somebody has acted like the little girl in the Peanuts cartoons and set up a booth labelled “The Doctor is in”.

Yes. One takes Psychology at University. It is not a hard course…(I took 3 semesters because it was less work than Literature) One graduates after 4 years and goes to a Masters… again… it is a very easy course. It is easier than Anthropology, it is easier than history… esp. in the U.S. I personally know someone who spent 6 years completing a 4 year course, who spent two years to get a Masters and has been unleashed for years.

I found out about this due to False Memory. One of my first legal matters was where a witness positively identified a suspect she knew well, who broke into her house one night. I brought the Superintendent of St. Catherine District Prison where that man was st the time.